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It's All Relative New-Season Theater Engaging to Women Compiled by Nancy Silk

Seattle Theater Season 2008-09 is in full swing with an impressive collection of thoughtful and entertaining plays appealing to women on many levels. With engaging female characters who dramatize themes that range from spirituality to politics, turn-of-the-century prairie life to contemporary Hollywood, farcical relationships to serious romance, you’ll be intrigued, amused, and inspired by this season’s rich and varied lineup.

Intiman

The Little Dog Laughed, by Douglas Carter Beane, shows through Sept. 13. This fast-paced dark comedy about Hollywood — how through deception and double-dealing it keeps its actors in the closet and its scripts straight — is both a sophisticated parody of the star system and a touching take on sex, love and the high cost of celebrity. Nominated for a Tony in 2007, the play was one of the biggest hits of the New York theater season last year.

Intiman’s 2008 season continues with All the King’s Men based on the book by Robert Penn Warren (Sept. 26–Nov. 8) and the ever popular gospel song play and holiday classic by Langston Hughes, Black Nativity (Nov. 29–Dec. 27). For tickets and information, visit www.intiman.org or call 206-269-1901.

ACT

Intimate Exchanges, by Alan Ayckbourn, runs through Sept. 14. The way everyday decisions affect the larger directions life takes is explored in this funny and innovative show about fate and free will. Two actors play six characters whose crucial decisions determine the course of the story on a given night. Running Sept. 5–Oct. 5 is Eurydice, by Sarah Ruhl (author of The Clean House). This funny, creative and sometimes surreal retelling of the classic Greek myth of Orpheus explores love, loss and memory from the point of view of Eurydice. Putting a contemporary spin on a classic story, Ruhl flips the ancient myth to focus not on the descent of Orpheus to the underworld to rescue his young bride from death, but on Eurydice’s experience of her death and subsequent journey. The play inventively expands on the themes of the myth to embrace not only the powerful force of romantic love, but also the deep bond shared between a father and daughter.

The world premiere of Becky’s New Car, a comedy by Steven Dietz, runs Oct. 17-Nov. 16. Fortyish Becky Foster has a decent job at an auto dealership, a solid husband and a freeloading son living in her basement. Her life is okay, if not exciting, and she can’t quash the nagging suspicion that she’s missed out on something. Until she meets Walter, a delightfully daft millionaire widower who falls hard for her at first sight and misapprehends that she too has lost her spouse. When she lets the moment lapse to correct the misunderstanding, Becky finds herself in a different kind of world with the chance to test-drive a new life. But it can only last as long as she can keep Walter in the dark about the life she already has, and her husband ignorant of the one she’s trying out. Inevitably, complications ensue as Becky tries leading two different lives without choosing between them.

Capping the 2008 season, ACT will stage its 33rd annual production of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens (Nov. 28–Dec. 28.) For tickets and information visit www.acttheatre.org or call 206-292-7676.

Book-It Repertory Theatre

The theater’s 19th season opens with Tom Robbins’ best-selling hitch-hiking saga and ’70s counterculture favorite Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Sept. 16–Oct. 12. Follow the cross-country exploits of Sissy Hankshaw and her glorious thumbs as she traverses the country “via roadside solicitation,” her customary mode of travel and way of life.

Next up is My Ántonia (Nov. 25–Dec.21), Willa Cather’s reminiscence of turn-of-the-20th century prairie life in Nebraska. The story relives the childhood friendship between Jim Burden, who as a boy moved from Virginia to live with his grandparents, and Ántonia Shimerda, a vivacious and independent girl who immigrated with her family from Bohemia. The story is a loving remembrance of their shared experiences as children, as well as a portrayal of the struggles Ántonia faced, with strength and integrity, as an immigrant girl and woman living in rural America at the turn of the last century.

The season continues in 2009 with Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, or The Whale (Feb. 10–March 8); Dinaw Mengestu’s debut novel, The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears (April 14–May 9); and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Night Flight (June 3–14), which will be performed at the Moore Theatre. For tickets and information, visit www.book-it.org or call 206-216-0833.

Taproot Theatre

Called “a rare gem” by The New York Times, Susan and God by Rachel Crothers runs Sept. 24–Oct. 25. Susan is bright, charming and intelligent, and at the center of the gossipy and fun social set who laze their summers away in the Hamptons. Now that she’s found God, or at least her version of Him, Susan’s newest fad becomes everyone else’s latest headache…until she receives a startling revelation. This witty social comedy of the 1930s wowed New York with a 2006 off-Broadway revival.

Susan and God wraps up Taproot’s 2008 season, and its 2009 season begins in January with the critically-acclaimed Gee’s Bend by Elyzabeth Wilder (Jan. 30–Feb 28), which weaves the stories of the women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama into a striking patchwork of the African-American journey of the past century.

Other 2009 productions include Tuesdays with Morrie based on the book by Mitch Albom (March 27–April 25); Around the World in 80 Days adapted by Mark Brown from the Jules Verne novel (May 22–June 20); and Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming written by Connie Ray with musical arrangements by Mike Craver (July 10–Aug. 15). For tickets and information, visit www.taproottheatre.org or call 206-781-9707.

Live Girls! Theatre

Live Girls! Theater is dedicated to producing and developing new works by women. This season, Live Girls! celebrates singer, writer and humanitarian June Carter Cash in its world premiere of The June Carter Cash Project (Sept. 12–Oct. 4). The theater commissioned three one-act plays from local and national playwrights who have each chosen a song recorded by the iconic songstress and created a play inspired by that song. The result is a mix of comedy and drama steeped in the passion and humor of June’s music. The three new plays (“Jackson” by Darian Lindle; “burn the houseplants and run away with me to a lonely spot on the edge of a cliff” by Krista Knight; and “Red Velvet Cake” by Zoe Fitzgerald and Nikki Przasnyski) are produced together in one evening as a tribute to this legendary performer.

The Northwest premiere of Love Person by Aditi Brennan Kapil follows Oct. 24–Nov. 22. It is a complex and beautiful story that challenges our perceptions of how language shapes our fundamental understanding of the world. Layered with mistaken identities and miscommunications, this love story becomes a “love mystery” that reaches beyond conventional ideas of attraction and sexual orientation. Told in English, Sanskrit and American Sign Language (with translations), Love Person is accessible to both hearing and deaf audiences.

Next up are the Bakery–Spring Readings (April 4–6, 2009). Quickies Volume 9 runs May 2–24, 2009 and from June 6-28 is the West Coast premiere of Circus Tracks by Sarah Hammond. For tickets and information, visit www.livegirlstheater.org or call 206-683-6983.

ArtsWest

ArtsWest opens its 10th season in the West Seattle Junction with the Seattle premiere of The Vertical Hour by David Hare from Sept. 10 to Oct. 4. Nadia Blye, a glamorous and intelligent Middle-East war correspondent turned Yale professor of political studies, believes that America had a moral obligation to intercede in Iraq. When she travels to Britain to meet her prospective father-in-law, an eminent physician battling personal demons from his past, the two engage in a life-changing debate on personal and political ethics in the age of terrorism. The script confronts the questions America faces as it approaches the 2008 elections.

ArtsWest continues its season with Black Gold by Seth Rozin (Oct. 22–Nov. 15); Plaid Tidings: The Forever Plaid Christmas Show by Stuart Ross (Nov. 28–Dec. 23); Well by Lisa Kron, (Jan. 21–Feb. 15, 2009); The History Boys by Alan Bennett (March 4–29, 2009); and GutenBerg! The Musical! by Scott Brown and Anthony King (April 15–May 17, 2009). For tickets and more information, visit www.artswest.org, or call 206-938-0339.

Seattle Repertory Theatre

Local playwright and actress Charlayne Woodard’s new one-woman show, The Nightwatcher, kicks off Seattle Rep’s 2008-09 season in the Leo K. Theatre. As aunt, godmother and friend to countless kids, Woodard beautifully weaves together inspiring stories of the ordinary and extraordinary ways she’s mentored the children in her life.

Also playing in the Leo K. Theatre this season is Boom by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb (Nov.13–Dec. 14); Rollick by Christopher Welch, James Palmer and Ron Carnell (Feb. 5–March 8, 2009) and Harold Pinter’s Betrayal (March 26–April 26, 2009).

You Can’t Take it With You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart opens the season in the Bagley Wright Theatre (Nov. 28–Jan. 3, 2009). It is followed by Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (Jan. 15–Feb.14, 2009); The Seafarer by Conor McPherson (Feb. 26–March 28, 2009); and A Winter People by Chay Yew, (April 9–May 9, 2009). For tickets and information, visit www.seattlerep.org or call 206-443-2222.

Stone Soup Theatre

This season Stone Soup brings Eleemosynary by Lee Blessing to its new 2nd Stage (Feb. 18–March 14, 2009). The play (whose title means “of, relating to, or supported by charity”) portrays the delicate relationship between three generations of distinctive women driven by each other to brilliance, betrayal, humor and love. A poignant and sensitive study of familial relationships, the play won the LA Drama Critics Circle Award in 1997.

Other productions coming to Stone Soup are After Magritte and The Fifteen Minute Hamlet by Tom Stoppard (Oct. 29–Nov. 23); A Child’s Christmas in Wales, adapted from the story by Dylan Thomas (Dec. 5–21); and “Outside the Box,” the third annual playwright’s original one-act festival May 21–31, 2009. For tickets and information, visit www.stonesouptheatre.com or call 206-388-9212.

Seattle Public Theatre at the Bathhouse

From Sept. 25–Oct. 19, SPT presents the West Coast premiere of Vincent Delaney’s The War Party, a darkly funny political drama about an ambitious female senator who, on the night of her failed reelection bid, is confronted by a shrewd, young female assistant who challenges her on many fronts. A timely and energetic look at American politics, the play questions whether we ask women who run for public office to be something more than human.

The Wedding Story by Bryony Lavery (May 14–June 7) is the bittersweet comedy about Evelyn and Peter, whose humorous marriage is sorely tested as Alzheimer’s begins to rob Evelyn of her identity. When their daughter Sally falls in love with another woman at a wedding reception, everyone is forced to confront what marriage means.

Other productions in the 2008-09 season are David Sedaris’ The Santaland Diaries (Dec. 4–24); The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson (Dec. 11–24); End Days by Deborah Zoe Laufer (Jan. 29–Feb. 22, 2009); and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (March 19–April 12, 2009). For tickets and information, visit www.seattlepublictheater.org or call 206-524-1300.

©2008 Caliope Publishing Company